6 Lights hover above Ocean, then one by one, each descends & disappears

S/SE of Catalina Island, 1 to 2 miles offshore, just North of Newport Pier -at first there appeared to be 6 separate bright balls of light hovering in a group, not evenly spaced, of varying altitude (approx. 20-40 Ft) above the ocean. Each "ball of light" was a bright amber color and had a spotlight-effect illuminating the surface of the ocean below. The one farthest to the right appeared to descend slowly toward the water surface and disappeared from sight. The rest seemed to repeat the actions of the first, but at 10-20 second intervals in succession from Right to Left until they all disappeared.

There was no heavy marine layer, no audible noise(s) to our bare ears, no apparant water splashing, no aircraft seen flying away. While cleaning up our tools from a home maintainance job, 5 of us noticed these odd lights at about 6:40pm.